FINALLY!!!!!!

I know our graduation count down said that Brett graduated last Friday, but unfortunately we were a few days off. Today was officially Bretts last day of clinicals. The next time he does anesthesia on a patient he'll be getting paid, YEAH!!! As we were applying for Anesthesia programs we had a lot of Bretts friends who warned us that this was going to be really hard, but we had no idea just how hard it would be for all of us.

Brett has worked so hard and I'm so proud of him. Although we are going to miss all of our friends out here in Michigan, we can't wait to start the next (non-student) phase of our lives.
A few months ago my friend Tobey took some family pictures for us. She did a really good job, so I'm going to post a few of the ones I liked.






My favorite picture is the one of Brett and the Girls. When you look at the picture you can just see how much he loves our girls, and how much they adore him. What a Great Daddie!

San Diego

This year Bretts national Anesthesia conference was in San Diego, so we decided to turn it into a family vacation. My parents also flew down from Idaho and spent the week with us. It was so nice having them there because Brett was in conferences during the day so me and the girls were able to go and play with my parents.
While we were there we spent 2 days at seaworld, but I think McKinley could have had fun there all week. I'd forgotten how much fun Seaworld is. The shows and exhibits were great and they have a really fun playland with rides, toys, and splash pads.



One of the highlights of Seaworld was feeding the dolphins. McKinley was really nervous at first, but she finally did pet one of them.


Another one of the animal exhibits that McKinley really liked was the ray pool. The rays would swim right up to Brett because they thought he had food. McKinley was able to pet them quite a few times, and it was really exciting for her.

Elmo's playland was somewhere that McKinley could have spent an entire day. They had really fun toys and rides.


My favorite part of Seaworld was watching the shows...well, actually watching McKinley during the shows. She would get so excited to watch the dolphin and shamu do their flips. We went to a pet show while we were there. It had dogs, cats, pigs, and birds performing. McKinley was cracking up during the entire thing.
One of the other things we did while we were there was to visit the beach. This was the girls first time at the ocean, and McKinley loved it.




Near our hotel there was a really neat museum that was on an aircraft carrier. Its called the USS Midway. Brett was really excited because his Grandpa was stationed on this ship.


Thanks again Mom and Dad for coming out with us. We had so much fun with you guys and you were so much help to me.

Overall it was a really fun vacation and I'm glad we were able to go to San Diego with Brett. Next time we'll try and do better about scheduling our family trip around Annabelles teething. Don't believe the pictures, she really wasn't happy on this vacation.

Good Times

Since this past weekend was going to be our last real weekend here in Michigan we decided to do something fun. When we asked McKinley what we should do, of course she wanted to go to the ZOO. So on Saturday we took a trip down to the Toledo Zoo. It was nice and it had a lot of neat animals to see. I thought it was way better than the Detroit zoo and it was only 30 min longer drive.

While we were there we took a train ride that took us out into the Africa exhibit. It was neat because we were able to see all the animals so much better.


I was amazed at the assortment of animals they had there. They had everything. It was Great!
On Monday Brett got off work early so we took a trip down to the Great Lake Mall. We had some extra carousel tickets from McKinley's Birthday, so the girls were able to ride the carousel a few times. After that we had dinner at the Rainforest Cafe. While we were at the mall we took McKinley to get her haircut. She has never had her hair cut by anyone but me.

She was very good and sat so still. After her haircut she got a balloon, sucker, and a little toy. I think she enjoyed it, but she was so serious about the whole experience it was hard to tell.
On Tuesday McKinley went to Nursery School Olympics. The city puts it on for all the kids ages 3-5. The do little relays and races.



Afterward they gave all the kids certificates and then we had lemonade and cookies. What a Fun afternoon!
For over a month I have been researching cameras. We have 2 digital cameras, but both of them are having problems. I have no intentions of being a professional photographer, but I really want to be able to take nice pictures of my kids/family. After weeks of reading reviews on different cameras and comparing prices, I finally found the camera I wanted. The camera came in the mail today and I'm soooo excited. I got a Canon Rebel. Yes, Christmas came early for me this year, but I really wanted a nice camera before our trip to Disney World in November. On Friday we are all going to San Diego for a week. So I will have a lot of opportunities to use my new camera. YEAH!!!!
Some more exciting news is that we finally found a house in Montana. Originally we were going to buy, but decided that renting was a better idea since we still have a house in Michigan and we have some student loans to pay off. The market in Montana is doing really well...too well. We have been looking for a rental for over a month and hadn't had any luck. Every house we looked at also had 5 other people who wanted it. Finally, we recieved a call last night saying that we were chosen to rent someones house. Its a nice house in a really nice neighborhood. McKinley will be going to the best school in the city, and the best part is WE HAVE A FENCED YARD! We are really excited. I was about an inch away from a nervous breakdown, so I'm grateful we found somewhere to live before that happened.
Well, we are off to San Diego first thing Friday morning. Hopefully, next time I post on my blog it will be full of beautiful pictures. that I have taken of my adorable kids, with my brand new camera. :) Hope everyone is enjoying their summer.

The Never Ending List

I don't know how many people know this about me, but I'm a compulsive list maker. I have lists of things I want to get done that day, week, month, and lists of crafts/projects I want to do. I also make lists of things I need to pack anytime I leave the house for an extended period of time (more than 4-5hours). I have a little notebook I carry around that is full of multiple different lists. I'm sure this just makes me that much weirder to most of you, but my memory STINKS. So if its not written down it doesn't get done. I get so excited when I can cross everything off of one of my lists, but that almost never happens because I add things to my list faster than I can take them off.The stress of moving has produced atleast a dozen of its own lists, YEAH!
This past week I finally was able to cross off a few of the projects that I've been wanting to get done for awhile.

I went to Michaels and bought some little piggy banks. McKinley has been asking for a piggy bank for quite awhile and I decided that it would be a great idea to get her one so that she could start saving up for our trip to Disney World in November. We had a fun afternoon painting these things. McKinley painted hers all by herself, I just helped with the letter on the side. Then I painted one for Annabelle and Brett painted one for the son he is sure we are going to have next. No, I'm not pregnant, and most likely its going to be a little girl that is the proud owner of this little red piggy bank.

McKinley and I had a really fun arts and crafts afternoon on Monday. I bought a 2 dollar shower curtain from Walmart and we colored a city on it. A lot of people have these little car mats, and I've always wanted one, but haven't wanted to pay what they are asking for them. So me and McKinley made our own. It was a lot of fun and it has everything on it that we could want. We have a zoo, park, Idaho Falls temple, library, McDonalds, grandma and grandpa's house's, and even a house we pretend is ours with a horse(buck) in the pasture behind it. I had a similar car mat when I was growning up that my mom made, and I loved it. The one I made isn't beautiful, because art is not my speciality, but me and McKinley made it together with everything on it that is important to us and that makes is SUPER COOL!

I also finally finished the girls growth chart. Its kind of plain but I haven't decided how/if I want to decorate it. My creative friend Valerie gave me the idea. You hang the chart 2 feet off the floor and that way you don't have to use a 6 foot piece of wood. From the picture it looks like McKinley is almost 6ft tall...Not yet!

I've been getting the girls medical binders caught up since we are leaving. Maybe this makes me weird, but I keep ALL of my kids medical records. Any test or procedure that either of them have had done, I have the report sheet of. Any time they go in for a check-up I get a copy of the report. Working as a nurse I took care of a lot of people who could remember when/if their family member had had something done. I feel very strongly about having a record of every medical thing that happens to my kids, especially since we move. I don't want to have to try and remember where we were living when a certain procedure was done. I know this makes me even more OCD, but its comforting to know that I have all their medical records in case something happens and I need them.
Annabelle has recently started scooting herself. Its so cute to watch her slither and squirm across the floor. Its amazing how well she moves when McKinley leaves one of her toys unattended, but if I stick a toy right in front of her its like she forgot how to move herself. McKinley has recently become the worlds greatest story teller. She has all sorts of imaginary pets and friends. Its entertaining to watch her start into conversation with her imaginary pet crab or kitty. It will be nice when Annabelle gets old enough for them to have conversations with each other, but until then I'm glad she can keep herself entertained.

I've once again gotten way behind. So here I go with all the things that have happened in the last week..

This week Annabelle got her 2nd tooth. She got her first while we were in Idaho. Now she has both of her front bottom teeth. Teething has not been pleasant for Annabelle, or the rest of us, so we're really glad that they are finally coming in.
I made these really cute flower headbands for McKinley this week. They were super easy and turned out really cute

I was worried the flowers were to big for her head, but I think they turned out good.
Brett recieved a very exciting graduation present this week... a horse. We bought Brett a tennesse walker named Buck. Brett rode it while we were in Idaho and loved it. He has wanted a horse since he was a little kid and after all the hard work he has put into his schooling I decided he has more than earned one.

Our most exciting news is that we got the results back from McKinleys echocardiogram on Friday and they said that they didn't find any defects. A week ago the doctor was listening to her heart and noticed she had a murmur, which isn't really abnormal for a little kid, but he was concerned about hers and ordered an echo. When we had the test done we asked the tech what she saw and she said "nothing really major". This had me worried that she'd seen something. We were very relieved to get the results back.



On friday we finally went to Spicers. While we were at the orchard we picked blueberries and raspberries. The fruit was so good. They also had a really fun playground for the kids.

On Saturday night we went to the Gaines rodeo. By the time Brett got off work we were only able to make it to the last hour. It was a lot of fun and McKinley was able to ride a pony, which was the highlight of her evening.
I took a picture of Annabelle the other day and was amazed at how much she looked like McKinley at that age.


The crazy thing is that McKinley looks just like Brett and Annabelle looks like me. Is that weird that they still look just like each other. :o)

4th of July in Idaho

We spent the week of the 4th of July in Idaho with our family this year. Since we moved to Michigan this is my 5th trip out to Idaho with the girls, but this is the first time that Brett has been able to fly out with us. It was really nice being able to take a trip out together as a family. Unfortunately we weren't able to spend very much time out there, so we had to try and stretch the little bit of time we had. It will be nice to live close enough that we can visit more often.
We flew into the SLC airport and then spent the first day of our vacation with Bretts sister Jennive. We took the kids to the hogle zoo and we all had a lot of fun, even though it was over ninety degrees out side.



I love the Hogle Zoo. Its the perfect size, it has plenty of shade, and its nice and clean. They've added a carousel since the last time we visited and I made the mistake of pointing it out to McKinley as we were walking past...yep, I'm that smart. So we ended up letting the kids ride the carousel before we left.


We had a fun day with the Miller family. Thanks for letting us stay at your house!
We spent the next day of our vacation with our family taking family pictures, riding horses, and playing games. McKinley was so excited about riding real horses that we even brought her cowboy hat with us all the way from Michigan.


McKinley had so much fun petting the baby horses and then getting the big horses ready to ride. I was worried that she would be too scared to actually get on one of the horses, but she wasn't... SHE LOVED IT!


It was interesting that after all the horseback riding it wasn't McKinley who asked to take one of the horses home with her, it was actually Brett that we had to drag away with the promises of "Someday we'll get you a horse".
On Friday we were able to spend some time with the Maxfield family. We took some pictures in the morning. Unfortunately, none of the ones I took turned out very well.




It sure is hard to get so many kids all looking the same direction. We had a fun day with the Maxfields and we were even able to go swimming at Green Canyon with them. That evening we did fireworks and ate Taco Time, YUMMY!
I was really excited to go to the 4th of July parade in Idaho Falls this year. It was one of the things that I look forward to the very most each year. We had a big family BBQ in the afternoon and then we headed home that evening.
Overall it was a great trip. Hopefully next time we won't have to cram so much into one trip. While we were visiting we were able to meet our new neice and nephew. They are both absolutely adorable. We wish we could have stayed for Landons blessing. Thanks Bradshaw and Maxfield family for making this a wonderful 4th of July. We are so excited to be moving closer to all of you.

On a side note, if there is any out there who has a camera that they absolutely love and would recommend or even a camera that they hate and warn against; please let me know. I'm hinting/strongly suggesting to Brett that we need a new camera because the 2 we have aren't working well. I'm looking for one with atleast 8mp, that takes quick pictures even when kids are moving, and one thats not huge. Brett refuses to carry around a giant camera... and yes he probably would be the one carrying it. Thanks for any suggestions. I hope everyone had a great 4th of July.